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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23978668">Courtly Poetry of Naboo</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anna_Hopkins/pseuds/Anna_Hopkins'>Anna_Hopkins</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crack Treated Seriously, Ficlet, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom, Naboo Culture and Customs (Star Wars), Non-Linear Narrative, POV Multiple, Romantic Fluff, playing fast and loose with canon, with inspiration from other fanfiction</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:07:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,098</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23978668</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anna_Hopkins/pseuds/Anna_Hopkins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Obi-Wan couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.</i>
</p><p>A series of interconnected Palpatine/Anakin ficlets.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sheev Palpatine &amp; Anakin Skywalker, Sheev Palpatine/Anakin Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Seen in the Senate.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladybird_Sparrow/gifts">Ladybird_Sparrow</a>.</li>


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/17354543">The Fish Who Fell in Love with the Sun</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurae/pseuds/Aurae">Aurae</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The general Star Wars fandom took hold of me two weeks ago. It is stubbornly refusing to let go until I post something, and so.</p><p>Anakin is of age for this fic. I just.. don't know precisely <i>what</i> age.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Obi-Wan briefly disbelieved his eyes, even when the Force told him the same thing they did.</p><p>He had been called in for an early session of the Senate, on short notice, so early that his Padawan had still been asleep and would be for several hours.</p><p>Or would have been.</p><p>Because Anakin was arriving for the main session in Chancellor Palpatine's entourage, bright-eyed and attentive as he sat down right beside the politician and pulled a silver hardcover book from a hidden pocket of his robes.</p><p>What was he doing? Hadn't he said he was going to meditate all day in the Room of a Thousand Fountains?</p><p> </p><p>Padme's head suddenly turned sharply in the direction of the Chancellor's box. "Is that-" she hissed under her breath.</p><p>"Is what what, my dear?" Obi-Wan murmured into his mug of tea, eyes on the Senate floor. What was Anakin up to now? It had been more than an hour since the main session convened.</p><p>He glanced up at Amidala: she'd covered her mouth with her hand, going red about the cheeks and ears where her face wasn't as heavily made-up. "My- Anakin is reciting from a book of Naboo court language," she explained, mindful of the slip. (Had Anakin ever thought he and Padme were being subtle about their marriage? They were both terrible at it.)</p><p>"I believe it is called 'High Nubian', yes?" Obi-Wan recalled. He had seen it listed somewhere in the Archives. Some trivia about its context..</p><p>Padme gave a small, sharp nod. "It is an exceedingly <em> florid </em>dialect," she said, darting glances between the Senate floor and the Chancellor's box when it would be least noticed by the rest of the assembly, "with precisely two use cases: politics, and."</p><p>"..And?"</p><p>"And <em> smut </em>," Padme snarled, expression placid despite the venom in her words.</p><p>Obi-Wan paled. "So then-"</p><p>"Yes," Amidala hissed. "I cannot <em> believe </em> I am hearing such brazen <em> myr'dulla-" </em></p><p>Anakin's head whipped around at the word, which must be Nubian in origin, met Padme's glare, and froze, nearly dropping the large, silvery book he was holding. Palpatine glanced at him, caught the direction of Anakin's gaze, and looked hurriedly away, back to the Senate floor.</p><p>A small twitch of his lips was the only indication of the Chancellor's amusement at their expense.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. An Inquiry Over Tea.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Accidentally posted two scenes in one chapter. Separated 'em. ♥</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Kenobi," Quinlan Vos began as he barged into Obi-Wan's apartment one morning, "did you know your Padawan was going out last night?"</p><p>Obi-Wan didn't even look up from the datapad on the kitchen table. "With a few others his age, and to Dex's after, yes."</p><p>"He wasn't with anyone his age when <em>I</em> saw him," Vos drawled, "at the Chancellor's moonlight ball."</p><p>"The what." <em>Oh, stars.</em></p><p>"Your Padawan, Kenobi," Vos sing-songed, "was the belle of the ball. In the most fashionable clothes off Naboo this season. <em>Matching the Chancellor's.</em>" A sinking feeling was forming in Obi-Wan's stomach. "I don't suppose you've seen him since?" his fellow Jedi leaned his elbows on the table, resting his chin in his hands.</p><p>As if in answer, Anakin opened the door - in his usual Jedi robes. "Morning," he greeted the two of them, filling a mug from the teapot on the counter before he plopped down at the table to join them. "Is that the report you were talking about yesterday, Master?"</p><p>When Anakin leaned in to read over his shoulder, Obi-Wan clenched his jaw to keep from flinching.</p><p>His Padawan had clearly bathed not much earlier, and the faint perfume of soap that reached Obi-Wan's nose was not the floral sort he washed with at Amidala's.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Seen in the Senate, II.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>"..tear my flesh to ribbons on the Earth's jagged stones,"</span>
  </em>
  <span> Anakin murmured in Sheev's ear, his tongue rolling over the honeyed syllables of High Nubian and driving Palpatine to distraction in the middle of the Senate assembly. </span>
  <em>
    <span>"Each shining scale willingly gifted as it is torn away, that you might shine, adorned in silver, in the sea-dappled sunlight; for love is nothing without pain-"</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>"Anakin," came a sharp female voice from behind them, and the Jedi's words cut off with a gasp as he turned away - Padme Amidala, </span>
  <em>
    <span>of Naboo,</span>
  </em>
  <span> realized Palpatine, </span>
  <em>
    <span>how inconvenient-</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>"Padme," Anakin tried, smiling, broadcasting his nerves through the Force like a beacon-</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>"I cannot believe your gall,"</span>
  </em>
  <span> Amidala snarled in High Nubian; it came out as pleasant warbling, to non-speakers' ears, but if Sheev could sense her rage in the Force, then Anakin certainly could as well. </span>
  <em>
    <span>"You have one chance to explain yourself." </span>
  </em>
  <span>She turned on her heel and stormed out, admirably quietly so as not to further disrupt the meeting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I should go after her," Anakin muttered, standing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Palpatine's hand caught his wrist in a soft but solid grip.</span>
  <em>
    <span> "If you must head to the ends of the earth,"</span>
  </em>
  <span> Sheev recited with fond eyes, </span>
  <em>
    <span>"then be guided by the Winds in your journey, o winged fish."</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>"I will return, battered, to the shoreline, if only the tides rise to receive me,"</span>
  </em>
  <span> Anakin promised, and raced after his wife.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sheev traced over the filigree on the cover of the poem-book he'd left behind on his seat, feeling the remnant warmth left there both by Anakin's palms and his latent Force presence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suppressing a smirk, Palpatine wondered if Anakin realized he was in for a divorce.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The 'High Nubian' court language of Naboo is made up as a plot device. The dubiously poetic lines spoken are inspired by "The Fish Who Fell in Love With the Sun" and a brief mention of Naboo romantic poetry in <i>Fundamental Force Carriers</i> - https://archiveofourown.org/works/6252790.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. High in the Spires of Coruscant.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>-laughing-</p><p>No need to call me out on timeline issues, I already know</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Pale fingers carded through the blond hair in Palpatine's lap. He had consoled Anakin for hours over his divorce from Amidala - settling the man's outbursts of complaint and sorrow. Sith Lords normally did not reach for the Light side of the Force, but just a thread of it to calm the Jedi wouldn't hurt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>(It had actually been rather nicer than Sheev expected.)</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>"She shone like the sun," </span>
  </em>
  <span>Anakin had cried earlier, slipping into the very language that had first gotten them caught.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sheev bit back his rejoinder: that the sun wasn't Amidala at all. It was Anakin, who shone brighter in the Force over his sea of Darkness than any star could; who had been tethered to an unforgiving Earth for so long, and Palpatine had thrilled at his release from the bonds of marriage as the desert thrills at the rains.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Anakin was asleep now; Sheev dared to murmur, basking in his presence, </span>
  <em>
    <span>"Oh, my Sun. I would not change what has happened, even to spare your pain. The beauty of your devotion... there is nothing that compares to the shine of your tears."</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A moment of startling clarity, as Sheev realized: if Anakin's heartbreak had manifested as physical wounds, he would gladly bear the burn of the Light to heal him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He shivered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was not the Sith way.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
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